Friday, 2 June 2017

A mentor of mine had his mailbox flooded with proposals when he created his personal ad. (He ran it one time in a newspaper and had hundreds of quality replies)It wasn't your ordinary ad.

It contained some 3000+ words

Why did he get the number of (quality matched) respondents he did?

Because he gave the reader every bit of possible information they could want - both about him, and the type of woman he was looking for.

He gave an overwhelming preponderance of proof .

And by doing so, disqualified a mass number from applying.

Now let's look at a full page ad from Lloyds Banking Group

So what do we see here?

A BIG BOLD headline.

BUILD

The pre-headline copy - 'Helping Britain'

The copy below BUILD

Lending up to £10bn to help people move into their first home in 2017

And, that's it.(All the showdowy blurry copy you see is copy from the previous page)

So what about all that wasted white space?

It's EXACTLY that... wasted!

There's prime empty land there to build a powerful presentation. A powerful case for what Lloyds are doing.

But no.

Lazy-itis and sloppyitis has won the day.

Not forgetting the utter waste of client money being spent on the frivolous and fancy.

Or, it could just be flat out incompetence by the ad people Lloyds are paying. They just don't know how to make a powerful case.

So what would I do to change this ad into a compelling presentation that would have the right audience looking at this?

I'd have the page split into 9-10 sections and in each section I'd show the different kinds of people who'd be taking advantage of these homes. I'd tell a story of their particular life scenario and how their lives are going to change. I'd have it so a reader could identify with one of those 9 or 10 different people and that would create some kind of affinity for them and,for Lloyds.

Telling the full story and providing a overwhelming preponderance of proof is not only the most valuable thing to do from a prospective purchaser or reader's point of view, it's what brings in the currency!